HEARTBROKEN Oliver! star Mark Lester last night paid tribute to Artful Dodger actor Jack Wild after he died from mouth cancer at 53.

"It is like losing a member of the family," said Mark, 47. "The chemistry between us was something very, very special, which lasted throughout our lives."

Both were catapulted to fame in the hit 1968 musical.

Mark was nine when he played the title role and Oldham-born Jack, then 16, earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as the cheeky cockney thief Dodger.

But Jack found it difficult to shake the tag of child star and he turned to alcohol - later admitting the 70s and 80s were "a blur".

Though he had been sober for 10 years by the time he was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2000, he blamed his earlier lifestyle.

Last year he wrote: "I was a heavy drinker and smoker, a walking time-bomb."

When radiation treatment failed, Jack was forced to have his larynx and tongue removed in 2002.

It left him unable to speak, but he continued to appear in panto - his actress wife Claire Harding lip reading and speaking for him.

Mark, now an osteopath in Cheltenham, Glos, said his lifelong friend "never stopped fighting".

The pair chatted by email until the end. Mark said: "He had been battling for a long time but Jack would never let the illness get him down. He brought a lot of warmth and happiness to everyone."

Jack was discovered by talent agent June Collins, mother of rock star Phil, after his parents moved to London. His breakthrough came when he landed the role of Oliver in the stage show.

He then joined hundreds of others at the audition for the film and at 14 was cast as the Dodger in Lionel Bart's masterpiece.

Ron Moody, who played Fagin, the leader of the gang of young pickpockets, said: "It was him. Jack had this special personality.

"He was tiny for his age. But in this child's body there was this incredible professional on top of it all... singing, dancing, acting.

"His performance was incredible and the film will remain a classic."

Moody believes he was "cheated out of a great career". He said: "Pressure makes people react in different ways, some people plunge in and others take the way out."

Jack appeared in American TV series HR Pufnstuf, playing a marooned boy in an enchanted land with puppets and actors in colourful costumes, pictured left.

He also released three albums, but by 21 he was an alcoholic.

His drinking cost him his first marriage to childhood sweetheart Gaynor Jones. He turned his life around in 1988, however, after becoming a born-again Christian. He met Claire in panto in 1995. They married last year in Bedfordshire.

Jack had almost completed his autobiography. He said recently: "I guess I'll go to my grave as the Dodger but at least I've made my mark on showbusiness history."